


Burning Up

by zeejayblue



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fever, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Whump, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Protective Lance (Voltron), Sick Character, Sickfic, Whump, otp fluff, worried lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 06:39:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11270061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeejayblue/pseuds/zeejayblue
Summary: What started out as fatigue and a dull headache quickly turned into much worse for Keith.





	Burning Up

     Keith couldn’t be sick, because he _never_ gets sick. Right?

     _Wrong_ . _Dead_ wrong.

    What started as fatigue and a dull headache the day before turned into a pounding migraine with chills, sweats, and flat-out exhaustion. Keith could feel the heat radiating from himself under the blankets, but he was shivering as he wiped beads of sweat off of his forehead.

    His teeth chattered and he moaned as he laid back in bed, squinting his eyes shut in an attempt to go back to sleep. Maybe the sickness he had seemed to have caught would go away if he slept it off.

    Keith kept fading in and out of a hazy, uncomfortable sleep, feeling like time kept flying by in bursts as his eyes fluttered open and shut. Right as he got comfortable, alarms began blaring.

     _“Paladins! Come quick!”_ Allura’s voice boomed over the intercom. Keith whined and slowly dragged himself out of bed, cringing at all of the sweat that drenched both his body and his bed sheets.

    Keith so badly wanted to sit down again, even though he only stood out of bed for a few seconds. The booming footsteps down the hallway outside of Keith’s door sounded so muffled and distant.

    Keith whined and sighed as he collapsed to the floor, not bothering to get up. His vision grew cloudy and the blaring alarm sounded quiet and distant. Keith was fading in and out of consciousness, and eventually passed out on the floor.

     Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro jogged briskly down the hallway, awake and alert despite it being about 7:30 in the morning. They all had their helmets and bayards, and they looked ready to fight. Allura glanced at each paladin, nodding and counting them mentally.

    “Where’s Keith?” Allura questioned, causing the paladins to be alerted of his absence and look around.

    “I’ll get him,” Lance offered, starting down the hallway. He knocked briskly on the door, and felt a little uneasy when there was no reply.

    “Keith?” Lance questioned as he opened the door. Lance gasped when he saw Keith laying on the floor, taking heavy and quick breaths. He rushed to Keith’s side, brushing his hair out of his face, and quickly felt the radiating heat from his skin. Lance pressed the back of his hand to Keith’s forehead, and cursed under his breath at how hot he felt.

    Keith slowly opened his eyes, and was confused to see Lance panicking over him. Keith was surprised to see Lance by his side. Keith blushed a little at seeing his crush so worried about him, and he was thankful he had a raging fever to blame it on.

    Once he completely came to, he noticed that the alarm wasn’t blaring anymore, and his door was open. Lance was in his armor, and Keith guessed he passed out and missed a drill.

    “Can you stand?” Lance questioned, helping Keith upwards. Keith groaned at the effort it took, and Lance sighed sympathetically.

    “You’ve sweat through your pajamas,” Lance pointed out, frantically looking through the drawers by Keith’s bed. Lance found some red pajama bottoms and a black t-shirt, and handed them to Keith.

    “You change, I’ll get some clean bed sheets for you,” Lance stated, patting Keith’s shoulder gently before he left the room and closed the door. Keith immediately got dressed, eager to get into clean, smooth clothes. The fabric felt like silk against his skin, cool to the touch.

    Lance came into the room seconds later, with a chair and new bed sheets. Lance swiftly pulled off the old sheets and threw them aside.

    “Sit,” Lance urged, gesturing to the chair. Keith sighed and slumped in the chair, watching blearily as Lance speedily made his bed. Lance reached out for Keith’s hand to help him up, and Keith took it shakily, struggling to stand up. Lance used his other free hand to guide him into bed.

    “There,” Lance mumbled, pulling the clean bed sheets over Keith’s shaking body. Keith sighed contentedly, pulling the smooth, soft sheets closer to him.

    Lance jogged out of the room and Keith watched him with tired eyes. His eyes fluttered shut, and when they opened again, Lance was draping a cool, damp towel across Keith’s hot forehead. A noise of pleasure escaped Keith’s mouth, and his eyes snapped open when Lance chuckled at him. Keith felt his cheeks grow hot, and thanked his fever for being his cover.

    “Why didn’t you say you were sick?” Lance questioned gently, his soft, low voice almost enough to lull Keith to sleep. Keith swallowed and took a breath before croaking out a reply.

    “I just felt tired yesterday, but I woke up today feeling awful,” Keith managed, his voice rough and scratchy. Lance gave him a look of sympathy before smoothing out the towel on his head, and frowned upon discovering Keith’s body heat had already made it warm again.

    “You have an awful fever,” Lance pointed out with worry, dipping the towel into cold water again, wringing it out before draping it across Keith’s forehead. Keith sighed happily as the cold towel hit his hot skin.

    “That feels nice,” Keith breathed, his words coming out slowly. Lance smiled lightly, grabbing the thermometer from the dresser by Keith’s bed.

    “Open your mouth, lift up your tongue,” Lance instructed gently. Keith slowly and sleepily did what he was told, cringing at the weird feeling of the thermometer under his tongue. A few seconds later, it beeped, indicating that Keith’s temperature had been taken.

    “103.5,” Lance read, a look of worry spreading across his face. He set the thermometer aside and helped Keith sit up, urging him to drink some cold water. Keith reluctantly did so, but he then realized how thirsty he was, and ended up drinking the whole bottle.

    “Is… that bad?” Keith sighed, looking at Lance’s worried face.

    “It’s high, but not high enough where you should be concerned,” Lance assured, struggling to hide the worry on his face.

    “You seem worried,” Keith pointed out.

    “I am, but if you stay hydrated and get plenty of rest, you’ll be fine in a few days,” Lance replied, mostly to calm himself.

    “Tell you what, I’ll bring you some soup to eat,” Lance offered. Keith nodded as he adjusted himself so he was laying down on his back.

    The cool sheets and his clean clothes felt so nice and comfortable. The cold towel on his head was doing wonders to cool him down, and he finally felt comfortable and tired enough to fall asleep. Keith’s eyes fluttered shut, and for once he fell into a semi-comfortable sleep.

    Lance peeked in and noticed Keith was asleep. Lance smiled softly and quietly placed the bowl of soup on his dresser, sitting in the chair beside Keith’s bed.

    Some time had passed, and Keith opened his eyes feeling a little better than before. The short nap his body let him take made him feel a little stronger, but he still felt sick and awful.

    Keith yawned and looked to his side and noticed a bowl of soup on his dresser. Keith looked a little further to the left and saw Lance had fallen asleep sitting in the chair beside his bed. His chin rested on his palm, and his chest rose and fell slowly.

    Keith sat up slowly, holding the damp towel so it wouldn’t fall. Keith shakily reached for the bowl of soup, grunting as he struggled to grab it. Lance’s eyes snapped open, and he blinked away sleep as he grabbed the soup bowl for Keith, setting a small tray on the bed so it was easier for him to eat.

    “I could’ve grabbed it myself,” Keith insisted, his voice quiet. Lance shook his head and yawned.

    “No, it’s fine,” Lance assured sleepily, stretching in attempts to wake up.

    “I didn’t want to wake you,” Keith stated, taking a spoonful of the soup. It was nice and warm, and it soothed his throat as he swallowed.

    “It’s okay, Keith, I shouldn’t have been asleep anyway,” Lance replied, yawning once more as he woke up. Keith took another sip of soup before responding.

    “Why are you taking care of me?” Keith questioned, causing Lance to freeze and blush. Keith felt himself begin to sweat again, and Lance immediately moved the soup and the tray to the dresser, ushering Keith to lay down again so he could fix his towel. Lance dipped it in ice cold water, wringing it out and draping it over Keith’s forehead again.

    “Because,” Lance responded, sounding nervous but firm. He didn’t say anything else, and Keith sighed in content as the cold, damp towel cooled him down. Lance fussed with it and moved Keith’s hair out of the way, combing his fingers through it. Keith subconsciously leaned into his touch, sighing in satisfaction. Lance blushed, but didn’t stop.

    “It makes me sad to see people sick,” Lance mumbled, his voice soft and low. Lance’s voice combined with the slow combing of his fingers through Keith’s hair was enough to make him fall asleep.

    “Lance,” Keith mumbled sleepily, on the edge of drifting off.

    “Hmm?” Lance hummed in reply, still combing through Keith’s hair.

    “Love you,” Keith muttered, and then drifted off into sleep. Lance froze and blushed madly, thankful that Keith was asleep and couldn’t see how red his face was.

    “Love you too, Keith,” Lance replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

**Author's Note:**

> just a small sickfic drabble bc im a hoe for sickfics and hurt/comfort things  
> i'm bored and sad and i have no inspiration to update anything else so i present to you: sick keith!!! aka: something i don't see enough of


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